Hughes Thomas
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits
CHAPTER XVII
EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. SCHEDULE OF GRADES AND COURSES
1. All examinations, as projected by the Ratio Studiorum, are conducted by word of mouth. Writing enters the examinations, only when the written word itself is the subject of investigation. Thus, in the grades of the literary course, the composition of the student, from its elementary qualities of spelling, punctuation, grammar, up to the most varied forms and species of style, comes under examination for advancing to the next grade. But even then, after each of the three examiners has inspected carefully the written composition, and consulted the Master's reports of the individual's progress during the year, they call in the writer, submit his paper to him, and subject him to an oral investigation upon it. After that, they proceed to the other branches, all by word of mouth.
In the higher courses, where style is no longer a matter of study, writing never appears in examinations. Written dissertations, special lectures, literary pieces of all kinds, composed for certain occasions, are merely a part thenceforth of the exercises incident to those courses.
To speak here only of Grammar and the Humanities, each new-comer, on presentation of the credentials required, is examined by the Director or Prefect of Studies, who "places him in the class, and with the Professor, adapted to the boy's qualifications; in such a manner, however, that the young person be rather worthy of the class above, than unworthy of the class in which he is placed."326 It is the remark of the earlier critics, that "severity must be practised in examinations, since it is more injurious for boys to ascend a grade, when not fit, than, if really fit, to be kept where they are; and, in addition to that, if they are advanced when not qualified, they create no slight disturbance in the upper class."327
Into the lowest grade, neither youths advanced in age, nor boys of very tender years, are to be admitted. The plea that parents merely want the children to be in good hands is not a sufficient reason for taking them; the only exception is for young boys who are really far advanced for their years.
These conditions of age, and sufficient preparation for entering the classical course, illustrate very distinctly several features of the policy which the Society pursued. Father Joseph Calasanzio, a priest of great zeal, petitioned the Rector of the Roman College, which was flourishing with more than two thousand students, to open some schools for the unprovided children of Rome. There is a Latin word coined from the first four letters of the alphabet, for designating this elementary class of scholars, who are not yet qualified for literature. The word is abecedarii. The term is employed both in the Constitution of Loyola and in the Ratio. The Rector declined. Father Joseph applied to the General Claudius Aquaviva. He too declined; he referred to the Constitution of the Society, which had been distinctly and in all its parts approved by the Popes. Unable to have his idea carried out by the Jesuits, Father Joseph opened his first "Pious School" in Rome, which was soon frequented by 1200 little boys, abecedarii. After the founder's death in 1648, his work spread into the vast system of Scuole Pie. In our times, the revised Ratio of 1832 recognizes the element of Preparatory Departments. It merely requires that they be entirely under the same jurisdiction as the College proper.328
Another feature of the policy which these conditions illustrate and which they also further, is that of their tending to discriminate between the right kind of scholars and others, whose circumstances will debar them from ever reaching the ultimate end of higher culture. Where circumstances are not propitious, neither is the culture altogether desirable. For what is more injurious to society at large than to have young people hurt in two ways, positively and negatively; positively, by placing them in a false environment of culture, which cannot be theirs in future life; negatively, by taking up with such culture all the time and labor which might usefully be spent in receiving a plainer education, and reach its term in any commonest walk of life? Besides, the liberal education itself suffers prejudice; for it is misinterpreted; since it comes to be estimated then by results and by circumstances which do not appertain to it. Every system should be set on its own basis, and be built up subject to its own conditions. The absoluteness of Loyola's Constitution throughout, and of the Ratio Studiorum in particular, throws this policy into relief at every turn.
After the boy's admission into a class, he advances thenceforward, either with the whole class, at the general and solemn promotion every year, or, if he excels, as the reports and the Master will determine, he is not to be detained in that grade, but may ascend, at any time of the year, after a fitting examination. A number of conditions, hard to realize, make this special promotion barely possible from the grade of First Grammar to Humanity, or from Humanity to Rhetoric.329 On the other hand, "if any one is found to be utterly incapable of entering the next grade, no account is to be taken of any petitions."
2. In the philosophical and theological courses, both of which terminate in the conferring of degrees, the system of examinations for all students, who are not members of the Society, refers only to those degrees, at the time when application is made for them. For the philosophical degree, the first preliminary is an hour's disputation with three examiners, on the matter of the whole course, and that in presence of the other students. The result being satisfactory, permission will then be granted to prepare for a public defence of all Philosophy. This is the method for the solemn form of graduation, which, in the old style, confers upon the successful student, after three years of Natural Sciences, or Philosophy, the title of Master of Arts.
At this point start the three professional lines of Medicine, Jurisprudence, Theology. The last-named faculty ends in much the same manner as that of Philosophy, but with a much greater amplitude of public acts or defence, and then finally with a defence of all Philosophy and Theology together. This entitles the defendant to the degree of Doctor of Divinity, which is conferred in the most solemn manner.
There is a pedagogical history connected with the present subject, which it may be well to sketch in two stages, first, that of the sixteenth century, and secondly, that of the nineteenth.
Ignatius of Loyola had legislated in his Constitution to this effect: "In the study of Arts, courses shall be arranged in which the Natural Sciences shall be taught; and, for these, less than three years will not suffice; besides which, another half-year shall be assigned the students, for repeating the matters they have heard, for holding public acts of defence, and for receiving the degree of Master. The whole course, therefore, shall be three years and a half, up to the reception of the degree."330 Again, Ignatius had legislated for Divinity: "The course of Theology shall be six years in length; all the matters that have to be read will be treated in the first four; in the other two, besides making a repetition, those who are to be promoted to the degree of Doctor will make the usual acts of defence."331
Having this legislation before them, with the experience of forty years to illustrate its working, the critics of 1586 are confronted, at the same time, with a set of historical facts, which seem not to be in harmony with the legislation. While Loyola's system was obviously the organization of education, the facts, which they notice, show a concomitant process going on, in an inverse sense, towards the dissolution of system. This, no doubt, was owing to the disturbed condition of the sixteenth century. Making an effort to bring the Ratio and the facts more into harmony, the critics reason in this manner: —
"It is hard to expect everywhere that external students will be content to hold their acts of public defence, only after their course of Philosophy or Theology; and that, during the half-year, or the two years specified beyond. For, in Italy, scarcely any are promoted to the degrees by our faculties, except our own alumni, or convictores, who cannot wait so long as that in expectancy, and who will readily slip away to Medicine or Jurisprudence; nay, they are alienated from us, and are offended at this severity, seeing that, in the other universities of Italy, they can most easily obtain the degree if they want it. In Germany, too, such intervals of protracted waiting are scarcely tolerated; and they rather think they have done something, if they have gone through a four-year course in Theology. And it would seem proper to grant them a relaxation there; otherwise, the men are deterred from seeking the Doctorate; so that Germany will have but few Catholic Doctors in the future; whereas, it abounds in non-catholic Doctors, whose promotion is to be had any day. In France, too, the philosophers do not wait beyond the close of the triennium to be made Masters of Arts; they could not put up with delay, for they are hurrying on to Law. The same is the condition of things with the German philosophers, for other reasons. Therefore the Reverend Father General might consider whether he will dispense with the observance of the Constitution in the Italian and Transalpine Provinces; the more so, as the Constitution itself says that it is to be observed, as far as may be."332
In accordance with this, the Ratio Studiorum is not absolute in its general legislation, and leaves room for the special conditions of different countries. A most distinct conception of the meaning and process of conferring degrees may be had, by consulting the typical constitution of an exclusively Jesuit university, as exhibited in the Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica.333 The third part of this document treats exclusively of the "Variety of Academic Degrees and the Conditions for Each." And it begins by saying: "As it is expedient to confer Academic degrees on those who are found worthy of the same, so the utmost caution is to be practised, lest, at any time, they be conferred on such as would only bring the name of the Academy into discredit, and the degrees themselves into contempt. Wherefore no degree is ever to be conferred upon any one, who has not undergone all the tests which the customs of universities require."
Passing on from the sixteenth century to our time, an important gap has to be crossed in the educational history of the Order. It is that of the Suppression, during about forty years at the end of the last century and the beginning of the present. These blank pages signify the total loss of property and position, with a severance in many places of the educational traditions for almost sixty years, and the entire destruction of them in many other parts. Besides, like "goods derelict," the whole system of education which, by means of the Society, had passed out of a limited number of mediæval universities, and had been accommodated with a home gratuitously in over seven hundred cities and towns of a dozen nationalities, was found by the Order, at its resurrection, to be largely in the hands of State authorities, or, at least, not independent of State control. Restored, but having had to struggle into existence, under altered and unfavorable circumstances, this pedagogical system may be viewed with interest, as it stands towards the close of the nineteenth century. For this purpose I may be allowed to glance at it, in several parts of the world, under the precise aspect which I have just been regarding, that of endeavoring to complete its work of education with Academic degrees.
In the United States, it has the same freedom of action as any other system of higher education, with none of the special support which is given to organizations endowed by the State.
In many parts of the continent of Europe, the property of the Order is in an habitual or chronic state of confiscation, and the members, as educators, are legally outlawed. Education can scarcely thrive when on the wing.
In Austria, where the Society is fully recognized, its teachers are, by a cross-move, practically debarred from State recognition. To pass on their students for State degrees, it is required that they themselves be certified State teachers. To become such teachers, they must have followed in actual attendance, and during four years, the special course of Grammar, History, etc., in which their certificate afterwards will be recognized. Meanwhile, as Jesuits, they have gone through the courses which I have sketched in the pages of this essay; and they are certainly, by this time, not to be confounded with young persons, who are merely prospecting some limited field of pedagogic activity, as the scope of their lives. Hence, at this most energetic and ripe period of their lives, they must waste four years, as if they were young normal scholars, in following out some one or two lines of pedagogical formation; and that, merely to have their word admitted when they pass their students on for the State degrees.
In Great Britain and the dependencies of the British Empire there are no such harassing restrictions. The conditions for matriculation, and for the subsequent series of examinations, in such universities as those of London, Calcutta, or Laval, are quite in keeping with the American ideas of social liberality; however high and exacting otherwise may be the standard requisite for success, either in the pass-examinations or in the Honors. Nor, if special matriculation is again required in certain English universities, before entering their courses of Medicine, does that impose any special hardship. Hence, St. Francis Xavier's, Calcutta, ranks among the highest of what are called the "Christian schools" of India. To make matters clearer, I shall take two instances, one from Great Britain itself, the other from the Dominion of Canada.
Stonyhurst will illustrate the working of the State system, as coming in contact with the Ratio Studiorum. The matriculation examinations at the London University create no special difficulty, although the higher classes of the literary curriculum may be regarded as under a strain, in the double effort to satisfy the Ratio, and to matriculate at that university. After matriculation, the process is considerably smoother. To take the classical or mathematical Honors, in the B. A. or M. A. examinations, is altogether in harmony with the usual course of the Jesuit system. At once, after the B. A. Honors, a good place on the Indian Civil Service list is within easy reach. And, in general, changes made by the Civil Service Commissioners have all been in the direction of adapting their competitive examinations to the ordinary school curriculum. In preparation for the military academies of Woolwich and Sandhurst, students follow the regular school course at Stonyhurst, to within two years or so of the time for entrance; and then they merely take up their special course, designed for the military cadetship. The same is now possible with regard to the navy, since the age for entering that service has been somewhat raised. And, to mention one of the courses which are altogether proper to the Jesuit system, that of Philosophy, the usual lectures of the two years' philosophical curriculum have only to be supplemented with a few special lectures, and the students are ready for the philosophical papers of the B. A. examination, in the London University.
Montreal exhibits the relations of Jesuit and State systems in a Catholic country. The University of Laval is at the same time chartered by the State and by the Pope. The Jesuit Professors in the College at Montreal conduct their own studies, examine their students, and merely send them with certificates to receive degrees at the University.
From this history it appears, that, though the curriculum of Divinity in the Jesuit system need have undergone no great change during three centuries, beyond the usual self-accommodation of the courses to new and pressing questions, its curriculum of Philosophy has been materially affected, with reference to the general world of students. This, as foreseen in the Ratio Studiorum of 1586, and as referred to again in the revised Ratio of 1832, causes a double arrangement to be made. First, wherever members of the Order are pursuing their studies, the philosophical triennium is, as a matter of course, in full operation, and is prolonged with individuals into a fourth year, for reviewing the subjects and prosecuting them further; and this seminary course, if connected with a public college, remains open as ever to the outside world. Secondly, to meet the requirements of external students, who do not desire the full triennium, the Provincial "will see that a course of Philosophy be established according to the customs and necessities of the country."334 Hence a biennium, or two-year course, is commonly established; and, according to the needs or desires of the locality, it is conducted either in Latin or in the vernacular.
3. Now we may review succinctly the different courses as conducted by the year, and as distributed through the week.
THE LITERARY CURRICULUM
The grading is based upon the principles of a classical education. Other branches enter a classical course, as completing the staple studies. But, on their own merits, they receive a special distribution of their own. The Prefect of the lower studies is instructed to "distribute History, Geography, the elements of Mathematics, and whatever else is usually treated in these classes, in such a manner that each Master can satisfactorily and conveniently finish the matter assigned to him." This is to be done "after consulting the Provincial authority," which assures stability in the manner of organizing these branches.335 As to the mother tongue, the study of which is bound up intimately with the classic literatures, a general direction is given once for all to the Professors of these grades: "In learning the mother tongue, very much the same method will be followed as in the study of Latin." And, in the form of prelection to be used, they are to adopt the method specified as peculiar to the historian and the poet, which is more summary than the prelection of the central prose author: "Much the same method will be followed in giving the prelection on classic authors in the vernacular."336
Lower Grammar. The grade of this class is the perfect knowledge of the rudiments, and an incipient knowledge of syntax. In Greek: reading, writing, and a certain portion of the grammar. The authors used for prelection will be some easy selections from Cicero, besides fables of Phædrus and lives of Nepos.
Middle Grammar. The grade is the knowledge, though not entire, of all grammar; another portion of the Greek grammar; and, for the prelection, only the select epistles, narrations, descriptions, and the like from Cicero, with the Commentaries of Cæsar, and some of the easiest poems of Ovid. In Greek: the fables of Æsop, select and expurgated dialogues of Lucian, the Table of Cebes.
Upper Grammar. The grade is the complete knowledge of grammar, including all the exceptions and idioms in syntax, figures of rhetoric, and the art of versification. In Greek: the eight parts of speech, or all the rudiments. For the lessons: in prose, the most difficult epistles of Cicero, the books De Amicitia, De Senectute, and others of the kind, or even some of the easier orations; in poetry, some select elegies and epistles of Ovid, also selections from Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and the eclogues of Virgil, or some of Virgil's easier books. In Greek: St. Chrysostom, Xenophon, and the like.
Humanity. The grade is to prepare, as it were, the ground for eloquence, which is done in three ways, by a knowledge of the language, some erudition, and a sketch of the precepts pertaining to Rhetoric. For a command of the language, which consists chiefly in acquiring propriety of expression and fluency, the one prose author employed in daily prelections is Cicero; as historical writers, Cæsar, Sallust, Livy, Curtius, and others of the kind; the poets used are, first of all, Virgil; also select odes of Horace, with the elegies, epigrams, and other productions of illustrious poets, expurgated; in like manner, orators, historians, and poets, in the vernacular. The erudition conveyed should be slight, and only to stimulate and recreate the mind, not to impede progress in learning the tongue. The precepts will be the general rules of expression and style, and the special rules on the minor kinds of composition, epistles, narrations, descriptions, both in verse and prose. In Greek: the art of versification, and some notions of the dialects; also a clear understanding of authors, and some composition in Greek. The Greek prose authors will be Saints Chrysostom and Basil, epistles of Plato and Synesius, some selections from Plutarch; the poets, Homer, Phocylides, Theognis, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Synesius, and others like them.
Rhetoric. The grade of this class cannot easily be defined. For it trains to perfect eloquence, which comprises two great faculties, the oratorical and poetical, the former chiefly being the object of culture; nor does it regard only the practical, but the beautiful also. For the precepts, Cicero may be supplemented with Quintilian and Aristotle. The style, which may be assisted by drawing on the most approved historians and poets, is to be formed on Cicero; all of his works are most fitted for this purpose, but only his speeches should be made the subject of prelection, that the precepts of the art may be seen in practice. As to the vernacular, the style should be formed on the best authors. The erudition will be derived from the history and manners of nations, from the authority of writers and all learning; but moderately, as befits the capacity of the students. In Greek, the fuller knowledge of authors and of dialects is to be acquired. The Greek authors, whether orators, historians, or poets, are to be ancient and classic: Demosthenes, Plato, Thucydides, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and others of the kind, including Saints Nazianzen, Basil, and Chrysostom.
The compilers of the preliminary Ratio throw out some very useful hints, relative to the work and scope of this class. They say, for instance, that the students of Rhetoric "are to be assisted with almost a daily exposition of some poet, to derive thence the variety and richness of poetic imitation and diction." Again, "nothing dialectic is to be made the subject of prelection in this class, since rhetoricians are to be kept as far away as possible from the style, invention, and spirit of dialectics." "Two or three years" are spoken of as spent in this grade.337 At any rate, "all our day-scholars or boarders338 should spend one year in Rhetoric before they enter on Philosophy; this should be brought home to their parents. The others, who attend our courses from outside,339 should be persuaded to do the same."340 If they still insist upon entering the philosophical curriculum at too early an age, special means are suggested to discountenance such a practice.
All these five grades are evidently so connected as not to overlap one another. Neither are they to be multiplied, except in the sense of allowing more than a single division, when scholars are very numerous. If all the grades cannot be maintained in any place, "the higher ones, as far as possible, are to be kept, the lower being dispensed with."341
